Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Have a rice day: Adivasi women harvest paddy in Aarey Colony, Goregaon on Friday. Pic/Satej Shinde

Making a trunk call

A page from the Gajapati Kulapati by Ashok Rajagopalan (Tulika Publishers); (right) Bittu Sahgal

Elephants have been a recurring character in fiction aimed at children, be it the Disney favourite Dumbo or Colonel Haathi in The Jungle Book. It goes to show how fascinated kids have been with the animal and an event tomorrow, meant to mark Children's Day, will celebrate this aspect with a talk titled Writings on Elephants for Young Readers. It's part of the Greenlitfest's Dialogues series, and features environmental journalist Bittu Sahgal, Vinod Rishi who founded conservation initiative Project Elephant, and Priya Krishan, senior editor at Tulika Publishers that has Gajapati Kulapati, a series on elephants in its portfolio. Meghaa Gupta, who conceptualised the event, told us that the reasons she feels that kids are taken with elephants is their shape and the animal's recurring appearances in mythology. "It is such a mammoth and magnificent animal, with this odd physiology and large floppy ears. It is commonly mentioned across Indian mythology. Ganesha is the Elephant God, for example. So, children have come across it in their homes in a different context as well," she shared.

Green signal for climate crusader

Harish Borah, a Mumbai-based expert in net-zero carbon design in the construction sector, is one of the few climate crusaders who have been selected for the 2041 ClimateForce Antarctica Expedition. The expedition allows a select group of climate action leaders, who have made innovative strides in the field, to study the science and impact of climate change on our planet in Antarctica. "Antarctica is, in a way, the ground-zero of climate change; it is where you can actually study the impacts. The idea is that leaders of climate action from across the world will converge at the expedition so that when they come back to their respective countries, they can find more effective solutions," said Borah, who has started a fundraiser to support his journey to the expedition. To lend him a hand, call 8486774839 or log on to impactguru.com.

Korean flavours in Bandra

Bandra will get a slice of Korea when Concrete, a café themed on the Southeast Asian country, will open its doors to the public next month. Chef Soo Kyung Jeon is et to helm it, and she told us that the food will consist of Korean health bowls called pokes, and small bites. She will also collaborate with specialty coffee roasteries. "I've always wanted to open my own place that is an experience in itself, where people can enjoy Korean food and specialty coffee. I've met numerous culinary experts and chefs who don't have a platform to showcase their meals - I want my café to be that platform. I'd love for them to collaborate with us. They'd get to directly interact with the customers and I want to create a community full of talent and passion who support each other," Soo said.

Gulzar saab is sport on

Poet-lyricist Gulzaar saab - at a time when labels like legend, iconic, great, game-changer are often loosely used - has certainly earned the title legendary, and we hear that he has been invited as chief guest at the inauguration of a sports training academy in Powai, opening this evening. Well, can we expect some shayari inspired by tennis, football, basketball or cricket soon? Maybe, and with the moving and memorable Gulzaar touch, we can bet those lines will be ‘sport on'.

When it's flush hour at Dadar

AAP's toilet protest at Dadar

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held a protest at Dadar East on Friday afternoon, saying they are raising awareness about the BMC and Shiv Sena falling woefully short of their targets to build community toilets for Mumbaikars. While the AAP cited statistics to shore up their accusations, their representatives also carried two toilets on a handcart, symbolising the Mumbaikar's struggle for clean toilets in their Flush Them Away! protest. The bemused and hurried Dadar public watched as they had nothing to ‘loos' except some time on their it-is-Friday-and-we-are-fried work day.